Volume 16 Chapter 30: If it ain’t broken, why change it?!

“Wine!” Every adult in the room shifted their tune, turning to Keith. Keith was taken aback as if a gust of wind had smacked him in the face; it was a powerful reaction from the adults. Everyone reacted whenever he talked about a new type of dish. They would look like eager puppies hungry for food, but they looked like wolves preparing to bite his head off with wine. Even he was slightly frightened. The kids had no clue, but when it came out of Keith’s mouth, they thought about something delicious.

Alvin tilted his head, “Little brother, you know how to brew wine?” Food and cooking were synonymous for his little brother. But wine was another matter: brewing was unfamiliar territory.

“I know the mechanics of brewing wine, but it will only be simple ones.” Keith calmly played it off as if they had so many books in the library. The first two kinds of wind that came to mind were honey mead and grape wine, which the former paired well with meat. The ingredients were simple enough; the only issue was the tools required to brew. He wasn’t an expert in brewing; he did it from time to time as Luis Shin out of curiosity.

It was hit and miss: he didn’t know whether he would get something good or the brew was spoiled.

Julius demanded, “Make us some wine now!”

“Yes!”

“Make us some delicious wine!”

“…Do you know how wine is made?” Making anything alcoholic took time: it was a fermented beverage where the longer it was stored, the tastier it became. But there was a lot of trial and error; one mistake could ruin the taste. It would even get someone sick, which Keith did not want to happen.

“Then get to work on it!” “Yeah!”

“Son, I would like to taste the wine you brew,” William chimed in.

“I understand.” Keith sighed; if his parents were so adamant about this, then he had no choice. He had never seen them so insistent, but he wanted to try some wine. Luckily, he was an adult in this world.

But drink responsibly!

Keith glanced down to see Laura tugging on his pants. “What’s the matter, Laura?”

“Work?” Keith heading out for work was the usual event when he returned to the mansion. Keith thought about it, “No, not today.” It was a free day for him. He had checked up on all the bakeries and shops; each one ran smoothly, so he didn’t need to critique. Oh, I need to make the wine. Keith groaned as he patted the child’s head, “We can play later. I have to do something first.”

“Okay,” Laura and the kids nodded as Keith headed to the kitchen. Gus spoke, “Boss, you have finally set your sights on wine.” He realized Keith was an adventurer; he would try new things no matter what others said. That was why brewing wine was not surprising to him.

“I’m going to try.” The process of making wine boils down to a couple of occurrences: the fermentation of the juice inside the fruit. The natural sugars would ferment to become alcohol and carbon dioxide, resulting in wine.

“How does one usually make wine?” Before he jumped into this, he wanted to figure out the process of wine used in this world.

“To make wine, we usually crush the grapes before placing them into a vessel and letting it ferment. From time to time, we would open the jar to let the gas out.”

“I see.” The same way on Earth. Instead of using packaged yeast to make wine, the skins of the fruit had small amounts of yeast on them. Old-school style was to crush the grapes, leaving the juice and skin together, letting the skin eat the sugar from the juice to create the alcohol.

Keith clapped his hands, “I will do the same.” There was no need to change the method. The saying goes,

If it ain’t broken, why change it?!

Keith rolled up his sleeves, “Let’s get to work. Gus, I want you to sanitize all the tools and jars we are going to use.” Today’s success hinged on cleanliness; the biggest challenge in fermenting was avoiding harmful bacteria. It could risk spoiling the wine.

“Yes.” While Gus worked on cleaning the space, Keith gathered the fruits; with a pile of fruits in front of him, he picked the juiciest ones. Rather than washing them as usual, Keith used a paper towel; the wild yeast came from the skin. Washing them would ruin the wine-making process.

“Here you are.” Gus handed Keith the jars. Keith smashed the grapes into paste and placed them into the jars. With it, he added sugar.

“Boss, why are you adding sugar?”

“Adding sugar will increase the alcoholic content.” Yeast ate sugar to create alcohol; there would be a point where the yeast would not consume the sugar, but that was something Keith had to taste. Now for the others: besides grapes, Keith wanted to try it with mangos and other fruits. It was the same process with grapes.

The next type of drink he planned to make was honey mead: the same was true with honey; it contained some yeast as well.

Keith decided on a sweeter type of mead, as once he poured the ratios, he stirred it together with water. He covered the lid with cheesecloth, then said, “Gus, make sure this is stirred daily.” It’ll help oxygenate the mead.

Fermentation will occur after a few days to a week; that was significant. If there were spoilage, he would need to redo it.

”Yes,” Keith washed his hands as he glanced at the door to find three little heads popping from the side, “I am finished with my cooking.” These kids are energetic; at their age, they were a ball of energy. What to do?

“Oh, I’ve got a fun idea for you guys. Do you want to do it?”

“Hmm?”